INTRODUCTION:

Since the early part of this decade, when the staff revised the museum's mission statement to reflect more closely that of the University of Georgia, the museum's growth has mirrored that of its parent institution and, increasingly, the Georgia Museum of Art is recognized as one of the best university museums in the country. Evidence of the museum's stature includes AAM accreditation (among only 750 museums), membership in the AAMD (one of 157), federal grants (including IMLS and NEA), and over 45 awards in the past eight years for exhibitions, publications, programs, and leadership. The museum is a founding member of the Southeastern Museums Consortium, and its staff serve on national and regional professional boards, committees, and review panels.

Exhibitions, educational programs, and publications, long known for artistic and scholarly excellence, are diverse in subject matter and appeal, encompassing traditional Euro-American culture as well as non-Western and ethnographic art. The museum organizes major exhibitions that are hosted by prestigious national and even international venues. It is often permitted to borrow rare, significant works of art that have not been seen in this country, such as sculpture from Rome's Palazzo Venezia, or etchings and copper plates by Rembrandt from the collection of the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. The museum is also invited to host important exhibitions, whose tours include venues such as The Art Institute of Chicago and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Conferences and symposia in conjunction with exhibitions present distinguished national and international scholars, such as the Rembrandt symposium in 1998, and the biennial conference on Trecento Italian art (1996 and 1998). Research presented at these events has resulted in a variety of publications by various participants, who acknowledge the museum and the University of Georgia in print, and a positive benefit to the university's standing in the humanities. Likewise, the museum's active publication program has yielded several books and exhibition catalogues that are or were used as class texts and required reading at universities such as Stanford, University of Kansas, and University of California at Long Beach.

Each year more students participate in museum study programs, gaining practical experience in all areas of the profession. Students and faculty at the Lamar Dodd School of Art are using the permanent collections for instruction, inspiration, and research. The staff has recognized the value of thinking and communicating across departmental and academic divisions, and regular collaborations with other academic units benefit all involved.

The staff of the museum is aware that the museum's permanent collection is modest compared to the older collections of many colleges and universities in the northeast. The museum will, when possible, make the costly acquisitions needed to strengthen the collection, and will also seek opportunities, as it has in the past, to enhance the permanent collection through the long-term loan of significant works of art and collections from other museums or private collectors. The museum will also continue to strengthen its reputation through the high quality of its exhibitions, programs, and publications.

STRATEGIC ACTIONS:

1. The museum will continue to serve as an anchor in the development of East Campus, and by its example, to make the Performing and Visual Arts Complex an integral part of the cultural and educational life of the University. The museum will complete the second phase of its building program, expanding by about 65,000 square feet within the next five years. Expanded exhibition galleries, classrooms, storage, and other features will serve the museum's long-term programming and collections requirements. The new building should be of internationally- significant design and will feature a Sculpture Garden. The strategy for fundraising will be much as for Phase I, except that the project will be all privately funded. The estimated cost of the project, which includes retrofitting the present building for the expansion, is $17 million.

2. The museum shall establish a degree-granting Museum Studies Program, in partnership with seven other campus units (Museum of Natural History, State Botanical Garden, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Terry College of Business, Historic Preservation, and Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library). The program will be unique in the Southeast, beginning as a certificate-granting program, then offering a graduate degree within three years. The need for such a program is indicated, on campus, by the large number of students (30+ per year) who request internships and museum studies courses at the museum. Similar interest by students is reported by other departments in partnership with the museum in developing this program.

3. Working with its Decorative Arts Advisory Committee, the museum will establish an institute for the study of the decorative arts, whose purpose will be to promote teaching and scholarship of the decorative arts, particularly those of Georgia and the south. There has always been an enormous interest in the decorative arts, yet there are few places where formal study can take place, and none in the south. The first step in realizing this strategic initiative has been made, with the creation of the position of Curator of Decorative Arts. Phase II will provide ample facilities, including classrooms and expanded galleries, for the activities of the institute. Announcement of the institute of decorative arts, to be named in honor of a well-known Georgian who has championed the state's decorative arts legacy, will come soon, and with it, increased fund-raising opportunities. A goal of $5 million has been set to establish an endowment whose proceeds will fund the activities of the institute. The staff of the museum will work with the members of the decorative arts advisory committee to devise a fundraising strategy. Proceeds from the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation will provide start-up funding.

4. The museum will establish an institute for the study of Southern women artists and organize a major exhibition in cooperation with nine other museums during 2004-2005. The museum will sponsor research by scholars on Southern women artists and present public symposia and colloquia on the little-known subject held throughout the South (and to be sponsored by the institute itself). The museum will organize the publication of the a three volume-catalogue of images by Southern women artists and a dictionary of Southern women artists in association with the Southern Visual Arts Library at the Morris Museum in Augusta, Georgia. Two university presses have expressed strong interest in publishing these volumes. Proceeds from the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation will support the institute.

PLANNING PROCESS:

The director of the museum has discussed the strategic plan with the Decorative Arts Advisory Committee and with the Museum Studies Program committee. He will engage members of the staff and the unit strategic planning group in refining and strengthening the final plan. The draft plan will be presented to the Board of Advisors at its fall meeting in November. The chairman and vice chairman will be involved with preparation of the final version.

Georgia Museum of Art
Unit Strategic Plan
Income and Expenses

EXPENSES:
Cost of Phase II	17,000,000
Endowment for operating support and acquisitions	30,000,000
Museum Studies Program (facilities included in Phase II)	TBD
Decorative Arts Institute endowment	5,000,000
Institute for the Study of Southern Women Artists	TBD
INCOME:
Callaway Foundation grant for Phase II	2,500,000
W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation (start-up funding for Decorative Arts Institute and Institute for Study of Southern Women Artists)	20,000/year
Museum Studies Program allocation for graduate course hours	TBD

The remainder of Phase II funding will come entirely from private sources, as will endowments for operating support, acquisitions, and the Decorative Arts Institute.

Updated 10/31/2000